Bella and the Herd 3/26/11

After work on Saturday, I came home and opened the fencing to allow Bella in with the rest of the girls.  They had been spending quite a bit of time hanging out over the fenceline, and Bella seemed so much more relaxed in her body and environment, and she looked longingly like she wanted to belong.

When I opened the gate, nobody did anything. They just stood around.  I waited for about 15 minutes, then coaxed her to the gate.  Then Lakota came up to visit, and the rest followed. There was a little bit of kicking and squealing, which lasted for about 20 minutes (on and off, of course).  Bella did as she was told, and when she was told to "go over there", she did.  When she was told to "stand here", she did, in a relaxed manner.  Hardly any fireworks at all.  I was surprised that Whinney was such a snot (well, not really, Whinney IS a snot, but they seemed so friendly, nickering to each other, over the fence before).  Jen keeps making faces at Bella, but that's all she does, Jen is all bark, not much bite.  April doesn't care much about anything and just goes about her business, and Lakota is happy if everyone is doing as she asks, and guarding the herd.

Then Bella meandered down in to the lower paddock that is less steep, and has much less rocks and stones. She had a good race across the paddock bucking and farting the entire way!  She is definately gaited, I don't know anything about soft-gaits but from what I can tell I assume she is foxtrotting.  I tried to get it on video, but each time she moved out it was off, then I would keep the video on and get bored at videoing her eat, and shut it off again.  Then she had a really good roll (which I did get on video) in the soft dirt, which she just loved, even with the other horses standing around, so she's really not nervous with them at all, just doing as she is told to do.

So, I am happy that she is fitting in so far (not to mention that it is less work maintaining one herd than two!)  And I'm sure she is happier too, and will have someone to hang out with, doze with, and groom with.

Here is Bella's video, you can see just a tad bit of her gait here, but its hard to tell because she's going downhill. And a good old roll, aaaahhhhhhh that felt good!